A Black Kid Named Pete

On nicknames, soda machines, and the death of my innocence.

Photo Credit: Grand America Jukebox

I grew up in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, in a primarily Black neighborhood walking distance from downtown. In the early seventies, we moved from Little Rock after our parents began jobs as managers in the menswear and womenswear departments at the local Dillard’s Department Store. Although I spent equal amounts of my childho…